UTD Geoscientist Searches for Diamonds
By Studying Groundwater in Canada

Chemical Signature May Reveal Gem-Bearing
Rock

RICHARDSON, Texas (Sept. 8, 2003) - With
the tenacity of Indiana Jones hot on the trail of the Holy Grail, Matt Leybourne stalks his quarry
through the rugged terrain of northern Ontario. He samples groundwater, looking for clues to locate
the object of his search - diamonds.

Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian government,
Leybourne, an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at The University of Texas at
Dallas (UTD), and a colleague, Beth McClenaghan of the Geological Survey of Canada (Natural Resources
Canada), have been hard at work the past few years in the laboratory and in the field, trying to
perfect a previously untested method of detecting the presence of diamonds. The pair, along with
other researchers and students from institutions in Canada and the United States, examine the chemistry
of groundwater, looking for anomalies and a telltale chemical “signature” that might reveal the location
of gem-bearing rock.

"Water ultimately gets its chemistry from rock
- it flows through it and interacts with it," said Leybourne, who describes himself as an "aqueous
geochemist," or one concerned with the chemistry of water. "By analyzing the composition
of groundwater, we can learn a great deal about the rock through which it has traveled."

The specific rock Leybourne and his colleagues are
seeking is Kimberlite — volcanic material that millions of years ago was quickly thrust from deep
in the Earth's mantle to the surface, often carrying with it diamonds and other minerals.

"Big Kimberlite deposits are found in South Africa
and Australia, which, not coincidentally, produce most of the world's diamonds," Leybourne said. "In
the early 1990s, geologists in Canada found significant Kimberlites in the Northwest Territories,
which have since yielded large amounts of diamonds."

According to Leybourne, two mines have been established
at the site of those discoveries and in just the past five years, Canada has gone from producing
almost no diamonds to 10 percent of the world’s total production of gem-quality stones. That number
conceivably could rise if the UTD professor's research ultimately bears fruit.

Leybourne and his colleagues focus their search on
a remote stretch of land south of James Bay, near the Ontario-Quebec border, where Kimberlite is
known to exist.

"We sample water from wells and look at springs
and seeps to pick up the geochemical signature of Kimberlite - highly alkaline water with elevated
levels of potassium and depressed levels of magnesium among other anomalous levels of trace elements," Leybourne
said. "Once we detect water with that composition, we should be able to track backwards to find
the Kimberlite."

Leybourne and fellow researchers are still perfecting
the art of studying an area's hydrology to find diamonds. While some of the work is done in laboratories
at UTD and elsewhere, visits to the field are indispensable. Leybourne made one such visit last summer,
while one of his graduate students, Jamil Sader, has made two journeys to the Ontario site.

"The technique is a new one - no one else is using
this approach, as far as we know," Leybourne said. "If it proves to be successful it likely
won't be a panacea in the hunt for diamonds, but potentially another tool in the explorationist's
toolkit."

When the project in Canada is finished, Leybourne may
set his sights on something closer to home.

"There are rock formations in Arkansas and Colorado
similar to those we are working on in Canada," Leybourne said. "I may go after some National
Science Foundation funding and bring my research there."

About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart
of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor,
enrolls more than 13,000 students. The school's freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront
of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment
of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please
visit the university's Web site at http://www.utdallas.edu.